U.S. upland classing rose to 372,547 running bales last week to bring the seasonΆs total to 15.347 million RB, 96% of USDAΆs production estimate. Upland cotton under loan declined to 4.967 million RB.
Cotton futures settled down eight to 78 points in traded contracts through July 2018 Monday, with spot March posting the largest loss.
March finished at a four-session low close at 75.63 cents, just off the low of its 94-point range from up nine points at 76.50 cents to down 85 points at 75.56 cents. It posted the high in the first minutes of the overnight session and the low in the late going.
May lost 70 points to close at 76.37 cents, July dropped 66 points to 77.11 cents and December eased five points to 73.94 cents.
Volume dipped to an estimated 45,331 lots from 49,783 lots the previous session when spreads accounted for 32,790 lots or 66%, EFP 828 lots and EFS 192 lots. Options volume declined to 3,833 lots — 2,423 calls and 1,410 puts — from 10,708 lots.
On the crop scene, U.S. upland cotton classing increased to 372,547 running bales during the week ended Thursday from 302,950 the prior week, according to figures reported Friday by USDA.
The total for the season rose to 15.347 million RB, up from 11.862 million a year earlier and 96% of USDAΆs upland production estimate. A year ago, 98% of the final output had been classed.
Classing of 16,872 RB of Pima brought the extra-long staple total for the season to 496,090 RB, up from 414,896 as of Feb. 4 last season. This raised the all-cotton 2017-crop total to 15.843 million RB, compared with 12.277 million graded a year ago.
The Lubbock and Lamesa facilities on the Texas High Plains classed 192,283 RB and 48,303 RB, respectively, to bring those totals for the season to 3.680 million RB and 1.523 million RB.
The weekly runs were up from the prior weekΆs 176,663 RB at Lubbock and down from 60,837 RB at Lamesa. The area-wide total for the season of 5.203 million RB compared with 4.223 million RB a year ago.
An additional 102,497 RB from West Texas (68,779), Oklahoma (30,443 RB) and Kansas (3,276) classed at Abilene, Texas, boosted the 2017-crop total there to 1.252 million RB, up from 972,683 RB a year ago.
Classing of cotton from the Southwest accounted for 92% the U.S. total graded for the week by USDAΆs Agricultural Marketing Service.
Ginning made good progress under sunny skies in the West Texas Plains and transportation of modules from fields continued uninterrupted, AMS reported in a weekly review.
About 40 to 50 gins have finalized operations for the season. Ginning began to wind down in Kansas and made good progress in Oklahoma where a few gins neared the end of the season and others expected to continue operations into April.
Separately, U.S. upland loans outstanding declined 72,999 RB to 4.967 million RB during the week ended last Monday. Entries were 279,473 RB and repayments were made on 352,472 RB.
Upland cotton under loan included 454,834 RB issued to individual growers and 4.512 million RB issued to marketing cooperatives or loan servicing agents.
Futures open interest increased 251 lots Friday to 287,310, with MarchΆs down 5,258 lots to 143,233 and MayΆs up 1,789 lots to 70,454. Ce Cert stocks grew 9,320 bales to 214,550. Awaiting review were 3,388 bales — 1,114 bales at Galveston, 778 at Greenville and 1,496 at Memphis.
